


and it's like the sky is new

by burnshoney



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Elf Culture & Customs, F/F, Fluff, Inspired by Fanart, Married Life, New Year's Kiss, Sign Language, Traditions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22078531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burnshoney/pseuds/burnshoney
Summary: Amaya gasps, tears springing to her eyes and she leans forward until she's pressed against the balcony railing, leaning, leaning—Lux Aurea, laid out before her,glows.
Relationships: Amaya/Janai (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 136





	and it's like the sky is new

**Author's Note:**

> me, wrestling with my muse: i! promised! a! janaya! new! year's! eve! fic!  
> my muse, spitting in my face: FUCK YOU
> 
> this is barely 1.4k and i'm TIRED this took a lot more energy than i bargained for but,, ,that's what my procrastinating ass gets. oh well. good job ames this is a wholeass day late. but!! anyways! enjoy this fluffy married domestic fic that KUKI DREW ART FOR AND I CRY DAILY GO SUPPORT HER ON TWITTER, TUMBLR N INSTA PLS!!!!!!
> 
> title and inspiration from [that tangled lantern scene because i'm predictable and cry over that movie daily](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mayDR-PlXo)

_You look beautiful._

Janai flushes deeply, watching how Amaya's fingers splay in an arc across her face before tucking underneath her chin before tucking a braid behind her ear shyly as she offers her arm with a small smile. Looping her arm through her wife’s, Amaya smiles gently back before they’re off, gliding down the winding corridors of the palace. Amaya takes the time to study Janai in a way that wasn’t the heated rake of her eyes down her wife’s figure when she had appeared in the doorway of her bedchamber. 

Even though the ceremony they’re attending is ancient and traditional — Janai _still_ hasn’t told Amaya what kind of ceremony it is — the Sunfire Queen is without her gleaming, pointed diadem tonight. Even the cloth of her dress; a dark burgundy with gold detailing in fine thread throughout the fitted bodice and long sleeves, isn’t the usual level of finery that the Court usually demands and Amaya wonders for not the first time why she’s in an outfit so similar to her Batallion underclothes. 

She had found the clothes laid out on her bed when she returned from her bath. Toweling her hair off, Amaya had stared down at the teal, high-necked tunic and brown trousers before shrugging. She wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, after all, and as much as she loves her sleeveless burgundy tunics and white trousers of usual Sunfire elf fashion she sometimes misses her simple military uniform. 

When she asks Janai as much, slipping her hand from Janai’s elbow, Janai only smiles. She shakes her head, chuckling. _Patience, love. You’ll see soon. I thought you enjoyed surprises._

Amaya's mouth curves open in a playful, affronted gasp. 

_That's low, even for you darling,_ she accuses and Janai giggles endearingly, patting Amaya's arm consolingly. One more turn around a corner and Janai is leading her up the familiar stairs to the Sunforge, tucked atop a tower, where supposedly this mysterious, ancestral ceremony will begin.

Even as one hand lifts the long trails of her skirt, Janai doesn't let go of her hand and Amaya tangles their fingers together. The ever-warm and blinding light of the Sun Primal starts to spill down the staircase, catching on Janai's gold-tipped braids but when her wife smiles back at her, Amaya feels herself go wonderfully breathless.

It's a been a year since their marriage and Amaya's succeeding coronation as Queen Consort but it's still the little things that remind her that despite everything, it's not a dream. The war is over, her sister rests in peace as her youngest son rules wisely with his brother by his side, and Amaya is happy. 

_Xadia_ is happy.

The Sunforge unfolds before them. Even at night, the now-purified Primal — the twisted, sunburst scar that spans across both their hips from the ritual almost burns at the thought — glows in a way that casts soft yellow across the gleaming gold tower, over the two thrones on one end and the balcony on the other. Janai steers her towards the balcony that juts out with a gentle hand that slips from her arm to the small of her back.

On the balcony, on a waist-high pillar Amaya's never seen before, there's a single glowing lantern. As they grow closer to them she catches sight of the small runes painted across the bottom and top edges along the swirls of the stitching. Despite the cream of the light canvas making up the lantern that ripples in the thin breeze of being up so high, the stitching is a stunning yellow color that reminds Amaya of the Primal behind them.

Janai's hand falls from her back as they come to stand before the pillar and the lantern bobs up and down gently. Knuckles brush across the back of Amaya's hand and she follows the movement of Janai's hand as she positions Amaya's next to her where the lantern is tied down with gossamer thread.

Then Janai is opening her mouth, speaking, and Amaya looks down for the first time.

She stifles a gasp.

Lux Aurea is _glowing._ She leans forward slightly, enough to see almost straight down the tower of the Sunforge and follows the small beacons of light that weave and dodge in the streets far below as far as she can see. Lux Aurea is alive, wiggling with radiating warmth of a different kind and Amaya watches the light bounce off gold-tipped horns and waists and fingers. Every face in the sea before them, stretching through the entirety of the Inner Sanctum, is turned up to look at them. 

At their _Queens_ — a Golden Knight and a human General. 

Janai's hand squeezes hers and Amaya looks over. In the combined luminescence of both the Sunforge behind, the lanterns between and the streets below them her wife is shining in a way Amaya knows she'll never tire of.

A radiant smile blossoms across Janai's face accompanied by a slight flush underneath her markings at Amaya's less-than-subtle staring and Amaya restrains herself to thumb across the gold lines like sunrays. It's so tempting she almost _does_ until she focuses back on Janai's lips.

"— and with this, we honor those before and after us. Just as the Sun rises and falls so do we, so do the years and all we can do is cherish the time we have now. Look to the dials!"

Every face looks higher and Amaya follows their gazes, turning and lifting her eyes until they land on the large dials on the side of the tower, set against the sloping of the roof. Even without having to hear it, Amaya knows all of Lux Aurea is holding their breath.

The dial is almost back to its original position, the shadow barely inches from the top notch and still moving when Janai brings Amaya's knuckles to her mouth. Distracted, Amaya looks down at the elf beside her — her _wife,_ her _Queen_ — and feels her heartbeat quicken.

Janai's eyes dart to the side and she's breaking into a wide smile. As if she's frozen in place Amaya watches her wife lower their connected hands and slip the thread free of the loop atop the pillar. Unanchored, the singular lantern floats upward and Amaya follows it's path until she looks out.

She gasps, tears springing to her eyes. 

It's _beautiful._

Lux Aurea, while never properly dark since the purification of the Sun Primal, is _awash_ with light. Hundreds — no, thousands, maybe millions — of glowing lanterns hover against the dark canvas of the night, twirling, dancing, _radiating_ a gentle yellow that illuminates all the smiling faces below and spills over every crevice of gold-finished architecture.

There's a tug on her hand and Amaya turns wide eyes to her wife. If possible, Janai seems to glow ever-more brightly under the lanterns and Amaya gives into the temptation, drawing her close and settling a hand on her hip, other palm on her shoulder as if they're going to dance.

As Lux Aurea celebrates below them, Amaya pulls Janai against her, rocking forward on her toes to press their lips together. It's nothing more than a brush of their tender mouths but it sends warmth radiating through Amaya's body until she feels as weightless and radiant as the lanterns that fill the night sky around them. At some point her eyes flutter closed and she's tilting her head, nose bumping Janai's cheek as her wife's hands come to cup her cheeks, ghosting her top lip across Amaya's bottom one.

Their foreheads knock gently together as they lean back and even though it's nothing compared to their kisses behind closed doors, Amaya feels breathless, heart banging against her ribs like the vibrations of the celebrations below. She heaves in breaths like a newborn, smiling so widely her cheeks ache but it _doesn't matter._

Janai is pulling her along. _Come on,_ she beckons and Amaya finds herself unable to resists her wife's summons. She's always known this.

They don't go very far. Off the balcony, around one pillar, there's a section of the Sunforge that juts out ever so slightly and is hidden by one of the supports of the roof. As soon as Amaya sees it, she knows it's most likely hidden from view — she's been here for a better part of a year and has never seen it.

She follows Janai as if she's in a dream. Perhaps she is — maybe she'll wake in a few minutes to find herself in bed, curled around her wife's sleeping figure, knees fitting to the back of Janai's with their feet tangled. They'll be in their bedchamber and Amaya will press a chaste kiss to Janai's shoulder markings before surrendering back to sleep.

Janai coaxes her to the railing and Amaya lets herself be led. _Come see,_ Janai's fingers say.

Amaya _does._

She leans against the balcony's railing and looks down at Lux Aurea down below, her city. _Their city_ People are dancing, laughing, raising their hands to the lanterns high above them that now rise above even the Sunforge itself, some so far up they look like stars more than just cloth and candles with runes so they don't burn up.

Amaya finds she doesn't care. Janai's shoulder presses ever-so-slightly to hers and a warmth that isn't from the Sun Primal or her long sleeves or lanterns blossoms in her chest, spreading through her arms and legs. Suddenly her head feels too heavy for her shoulders and Amaya finds herself leaning against Janai, slotting the crown of her head against her wife's neck.

Not a moment later Janai's hand encircles her waist while the other rests on the balcony's railing and they watch, silent, as the New Year begins around them.

 _Happy New Year, Amaya,_ Janai signs later and kisses each knuckle on her hand before flipping it over and presses her mouth to the faded scar on her palm. Amaya's smile softens, hand not in Janai's cupping her jawline.

Janai leans into the touch, eyes fluttering and Amaya sighs contentedly. _Happy New Year, sweetheart._

Amber eyes illuminated softly by glowing lanterns follows the movement of her hands and Janai smiles when Amaya's fists press together at the knuckles, thumbs up, resting above her heart. _Sweetheart._

A fire lily is tucked behind Amaya's ear, Janai's fingers brushing her ear and although she doesn't know where it came from Amaya can't seem to erase the giddiness in her chest. _Sweetheart,_ she signs. _Sweetheart._ Janai kisses her then, again and again, until Amaya's mouth buzzes numbly with a heat she savors. Janai's horns bump into her head when Amaya leans it back against her shoulder and together they watch _their_ people celebrate below the hung, spinning lanterns in the sky above them, a promise of a new year and continued peace.

**Author's Note:**

> come follow me on twitter @ korrqsato for more of me crying over janaya okay peace gays happy new year


End file.
